Susan Chodakiewitz is a writer, composer and producer. She is the founder of Booksicals Children’s Books- encouraging the love of reading through the arts. Through her company Booksicals she has created the Booksicals on Stage literacy program which is currently presenting musical performances of the picture book Too Many Visitors for One Little House at schools, libraries, and special events.
Susan lives in Los Angeles in a lively household filled with music, three sons, a husband, a Dalmatian and lots of visitors. Susan loves picture books and when she wrote a musical based on one of her favorites, she realized it was time to start writing her own picture books. Too Many Visitors for One Little House is Susan’s debut book. You can visit her website at www.booksicals.com.
Thank you for this interview, Susan. Can you tell us a little about yourself and how long you’ve been writing?
I’ve been writing and composing musical theater for about seven years. I started writing children’s books about four years ago. Transitioning from writing musical theater to writing children’s picture books felt very natural to me.
I absolutely love picture books and the way they express complicated emotions and ideas in simple and whimsical ways.
When my three sons were born I had a great excuse to spend hours in the children’s section. Deep down I think I always knew I would someday be writing my own books I just didn’t know when or what.
Writing picture books for me is a lot like writing songs for musical theater. The sound of the words and how they roll off the tongue is critically important in both art forms. In both songs and picture books I have to develop a character and tell a story with very few words and in a very short time frame. I write, re-write and keep cutting words until the sentences “sing” and the words fall on all the right beats.
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